Life in the Carpathian bush

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big cats

I knew there were Eurasian Lynx up in the heavily forested hills surrounding the village but I didn’t expect to find such an immense one wandering around a few hundred metres behind my house. I filmed it in the little wooded gully where I captured badger, pine marten, red squirrel, boar and red deer on the trailcam. It really made me think how often I’ve been kneeling down in the dark and damp with thick tree canopy above me not realising what might be looking down on me. They eat deer…

There’s never been an attack by Lynx on humans though, although they will go for domestic animals such as dogs and sheep (fox is part of their diet).

Eurasian Lynx are much bigger than their North American counterparts and are the third largest predator in Europe (ironically, we get the other two – wolf and bear – wandering around out the back also). They grow up to 130cms in length (only 10cms shorter than a cheetah) and can weigh up to 30 kilos.